And Tomorrow, We Begin Again
by epichlexi
Summary: Helen Magnus has just revealed the new Sanctuary to Will. Now it is time to track down the rest of her team and family and start anew.
1. Prologue: Will

**And Tomorrow, We Begin Again**

**A/N**: This fic picks up right after the end of SFN2. Magnus has already brought Will to the new Sanctuary, but what about the others?

I don't own these characters, not making money off the fic, etc etc etc…

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Prologue: Exploring

"Shall we begin?" Helen asked with a smile, casting a glance at Will, who was still standing beside her, staring awestruck at the new Sanctuary.

"… Wow. Magnus. Wow…" Helen smiled, glad to see her protégé at such a loss of words. There had been far too many words between them lately, and even a few punches. "The others?"

"You're the first to know, Will. I promise."

"No more secrets?"

"No more secrets."

Will took a few steps forward, heading toward the entrance. Helen walked with him, approaching the building. Will was looking around as they walked, taking in the details. Two modern, sleek-looking buildings… a Praxian transit sphere running on its track overhead. "That goes to-" he started to question.

"Praxis. Easy travel back and forth for Kate and Garris." Helen smiled. "Though I only activated it today, to give Kate something to get curious about and come find out about this place." Will nodded. It was a creative idea to be sure. "Hopefully she'll get curious soon. I'd hate to have anyone thinking you were dead any longer than necessary. Trust me, Magnus, not a good feeling."

"I'm sorry Will. I had no choice until this place was ready to keep everything under wraps, including the fact that I survived the destruction of the Old City Sanctuary." Helen did feel terrible about letting her family believe she was dead, even for really only a few days. It was more difficult in some ways than reliving 113 years before returning home only hours after she left to follow Adam Worth into a rift field into the past.

Will nodded, willing himself to understand. Magnus had acted in all of their best interest, and he had to forgive her for her secrets. "So what now?"

"Now we begin again. I'm sure it won't be long until Kate finds the transit sphere. Meanwhile, I'll contact Henry and Nikola."

"Tesla?" Will was incredulous. "Why are you contacting him?"

"He is not working for SCIU anymore and he has been a friend to us, Will. He helped defeat Caleb and enact my plan. I'm going to offer to him to join the Sanctuary team permanently, full time."

"Oh goody," Will replied with a slight roll of his eyes and started off toward the building again. Helen smirked and shook her head before following him.

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**Well, here's a prologue. Sorry it took so long. Reviews are much appreciated! New chapters ASAP, now that I finally got started. **


	2. Chapter 1: Nikola

Sooo sorry this has sat un-updated for so long. I was sick and just couldn't form a coherent thought for such a long time. I'm back now!

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Nikola opened the door to his house and wandered in without bothering to turn on the lights. It was after 2 AM and he'd spent most of the night wandering Old City, near the ruins of what had been the Old City Sanctuary. Will was MIA, Kate had gone back to New Praxis with Garris, and Henry had been staying with him. Where else was he going to go? So, with surprisingly little reluctance Nikola had offered to Wolfie to stay in his spare bedroom for a few days or weeks or whatever he needed to figure out what he was going to do. The truth was, he liked having him here. Someone who made him feel connected to Helen, to the Sanctuary that had been his refuge even in his darkest times.

Not that he'd been seeing much of "Helen's boy" as he often thought of him. Henry had holed himself up in the spare bedroom with a tablet and some gizmos to tinker with, and rarely exited the room into the house unless to shower or get something to eat. He didn't want to talk and frankly, most often neither did Nikola. And so they had co-existed in relative quiet, living their personal grief privately in one another's vague company.

He was spending most of his evenings wandering Old City, within any distance he felt was reasonable of the square block of ruins and rubble that ten days ago had been the Sanctuary. The first few days he had to keep a distance, with officials of various types coming and going. That was how he'd gotten into the habit of stalking around there late at night, past midnight. It felt like he was visiting a grave and he figured in a way, he was.

Helen had not been heard from. Whatever she had up her sleeve, whatever had left her with the guts to send him away before facing Caleb.. it must have failed her. Go, Nikola. Go, quickly! Why had he gone? Why had he been foolish enough to leave her? Had her kiss really startled him so much, through his judgement into a tailspin so badly?

These thoughts of self-loathing were generally what came to him as he left the site each night to return home.

Tonight he slipped in the front door quietly as ever, and didn't even bother switching on the light. Wolfgang was upstairs and probably asleep by now, and Nikola's heightened night vision was one of the perks of the immortal vampire nature he now cursed for his virtually endless longevity.

A forever without Helen Magnus. How could that even be possible?

Nikola started toward the stairs, but paused when a dim light from the kitchen caught his eye. Henry must have forgotten to turn something off, so he walked over to turn off the offending light. But he paused in the entranceway to his kitchen, taken aback by what he saw.

On the normally empty table by the wall was a bottle of wine. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a very fine vintage red indeed. Something rare, expensive and old.

There was a tag affixed to the next of the bottle, a note. It was sealed with a strange seal upon it, but when he took a closer look, Nikola realized that he recognized the character in the map. He stared at it in disbelief for a long moment.

It was that strange character that Gregory Magnus had shown Will in the avatar chamber. The one that had been central on the holo-map tucked inside the Michelangelo book. Nikola's heart began to beat rapidly as he slipped a finger under the seal to open the note.

There it was. The words on the paper meant little to him compared to the handwriting itself. That familiar, beautiful script he'd recognize anywhere.

"_Something special as my apology for putting you through so much pain._

_Follow the clues. You're the genius. You'll figure it out_."

No signature. She was underground. Hiding. She had to let the world think she was dead. But now he knew she wasn't.

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Nikola puzzled over the bottle a few more moments, wondering where Helen could be. She clearly expected him to find her. He turned the note over in his hands, looking for any clues or marks he had missed the first time.

The bottle was completely ordinary. A lovely wine from a quality vintage, to be sure, but nothing jumped out at him as a clue. He sighed, frustrated yet again. He had to clear his mind and focus. He had to figure this out, because at the other end she would be there. His Helen. Alive.

Then he spotted it. Nestled into the cork so carefully he hadn't seen it at first at all. The small chip that he recognized immediately as a Praxian data chip. So much smaller than an SD card or a flash drive, and capable of holding massive amounts of information. Luckily, Wolfgang had managed to modify some of these to be adapted with a standard SD card (a task Nikola had assisted Henry with a little more than the HAP cared to admit, if they were honest), and Helen had clearly saved at least one of these before the Sanctuary quite literally went up in flames.

He had the adapter. He'd used one such chip to slip SCIU information unnoticed into Heinrich's tablet after the rift squid situation.

Clicking the chip into the flash drive adapter, he put it in his laptop and eagerly searched out the file. Helen had encrypted it, geniusly, in the vampire language. Nikola grinned despite himself at her ingenuity, and began eagerly searching the ancient symbols for the clues as to her whereabouts.

Putting the information in vampire script was apparently not enough security. Half of what was there was nonsense, with vague referrences interspersed. He was reminded of the coded message they had sent in Praxian to Will and Henry while they were trapped in binary inside the computer system at the old Sanctuary, trying to stop the consciousness of Adam Worth from escaping in a new, stolen body and taking over.

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It was so close. So very close and yet so impenetrable. Nikola had spent hours searching through the encrypted message left on the Praxian chip, only to find that the message was for coordinates located under an old sewer tunnel in New City. Oh, how very nice. Well, there was literally nowhere he wouldn't go to see her again. Helen Magnus, he would go to hell and back seven times over for her. More than that, if he was being honest.

He climbed down to the area indicated as the entrance and followed the directions that had been encrypted in the chip. There was a tunnel that led off away from the visible platform and he followed that direction.

It would have been so easy to miss if not for his ability to feel power being drawn offline from beyond a wall. The unassuming doorway tucked into a shadowy, abandoned tunnel. There was a simple panel next to it, and Nikola reflexively pressed a hand to it in an attempt to activate it.

The panel clipped a steady beep and a scanning mechanism met his eye. It scanned his retina and with a click the door opened. Nikola stepped past the entrance and looked around. It was a stone passage that led toward something. He could hear the rush of water, and not like water coursing through pipes from some nearby sewer line. No, this was the rush of water in a natural setting- a waterfall even. A sound well-known to him; he'd built the first hydraulic power plant at Niagra Falls afterall!

He kept walking. A bit further down he stopped dead in his tracks to behold what was before him. Two buildings of a sleek, modern design, with a transit sphere track running between them. The place was surrounded by green and water, and a Praxis-style fake sky above. Creatures of every description, abnormals from both Hollow Earth and the surface, roaming the grounds. Sally splashed up out of the water with a smile and wave to Nikola. ~Find her, she's waiting for you, ~ the mermaid spoke telepathically to him. Nikola smiled a little to acknowledge her and continued toward the buildings.

"I decided to return the favor." A voice came from behind him. A voice more familiar than any he'd ever known or would know in his life, the one he could never forget or remove from his mind.

"Oh?" He managed to maintain a cool tone as he turned toward her. The sight of her took his breath away. Not only because until the wee hours of this morning had he believed her to be dead, but because she looked so absolutely, positively radiant there under the artificial sun, with the clear, pure waterfalls behind her and reflecting into the clear blue of her eyes, accented by the sapphire dress she wore that fell teasingly just above her knees. Her hands were clasped casually infront of her, as she watched him with a warm smile, her dark hair falling in loose waves around her face.

"Rome, Nikola... You love Rome, remember?" She took a few steps toward him with that knowing look. He was losing his emotional distance as she closed the physical gap between them. "Your first words to me in Rome: 'Kiss me and I'll save your life.' "

Nikola blinked, nodding as his eyes never left Helen as she approached him. "Well now.. I've saved yours." She reached him, her hand lifting to rest against the lapel of his black suit jacket. His eyes fixed on hers as she reached him and he nodded. "You did."

"So, I'm thinking... that it warrants another kiss."

Nikola had so much he wanted to say to her. He wanted to tell her he loved her, and that he was angry with her for keeping such secrets and practically blowing herself to bits. He wanted to tell her how Henrich was holed up in his spare bedroom, how Huggybear was missing, how he had never wanted to live a day without her, and how angry he was with her for shutting them all out and possibly killing herself. But the words wouldn't come. For one very rare moment, Nikola Tesla was at a loss for words.

And so, he could only nod, while she leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. Warmer than the stolen kiss in Rome, not quite as bold and yet more complex than the unexpected kiss, laced with finality, that she had given him in the lab ten days ago.

When she pulled away a moment later, Nikola found himself searching for breath and words. Finally the first thought that came to him was uttered in his usual impulsive way, but his tone was so sincere that Helen smiled warmly.

"P.S: You look hot... "

There would be time for real words later.


	3. Chapter 2: Henry

**Here's the next installment in my story about how the team finds Magnus and the new Sanctuary! Hope everyone's enjoying it thus far. Henry this time, and next time Kate! Then that will probably be it for this fic, but I have lots of ideas for the future! **

**Reviews are awesome and super appreciated. Tell me what you think! Also, poll: Is Biggie REALLY dead? Should I write a story explaining how he might not be? How about Druitt? Let me know!**

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Henry had been staying at Nikola's house in New City since the Sanctuary had burned down. It had been nearly two weeks, and in about a week he had not heard from Will. Whatever, they each had their own stuff to sort through in their grief and shock and figuring out how to move on with their lives.

The strange part was that he had been completely alone for two days. Sure, he hadn't been seeing much of Tesla since he came to stay here two weeks ago. They had been co-existing in a daze. But the past two days had been eerily silent. Never the sound of footsteps in the hallway, or the shower running two doors down. The faint scent of blood and wine had faded from the kitchen. Tesla's room was closed up and untouched for at least two days. He clearly had not been in the house at all.

Henry usually wouldn't have cared. Afterall, Tesla did what he wanted and nothing else. He shouldn't really give half a damn about the guy and yet, there had been enough loss, enough recklessness lately for all of them. Something had changed in how the vampire and the HAP related to one another, starting with the SCIU-investigation-turned-alien-squid-hunt, and Henry found himself less resentful of Nikola in general. Now he'd even opened his home to him when Henry had nowhere else to go after... everything. And now, Henry was concerned.

Nikola was grieving too. He was in shock about everything, about the destruction of the Sanctaury and more so, about Helen's death. They all were. Will hadn't been heard from in over a week, but Henry assumed he was someplace with Abby licking his wounds and planning the next steps, maybe with Declan... the Sanctuary had to go on even without Magnus, without Old City. He was confident he'd hear from him when he was ready.

But Tesla on his own in the midst of all of this chaos was a very frightening thought. He was always a few steps away from attempting world domination and last time he'd had a breakdown of sorts it had gone very badly. Zombie vampires in Rome. Henry knew he had to try to find him.

First thing first, he could try to track his cell phone. Henry logged into a computer and a few commands and keystrokes later he had a location lock on Tesla's smartphone. "Aha.." He looked at the screen, blinking at what he saw. That location didn't make any sense. It wasn't that far away but ... there was nothing there. He'd have to do some more investigation.

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An hour later, Henry was getting ready to head out and go look for Tesla in the region north of New City where he had picked up the signal from his phone. But, true to form, Nikola was three steps ahead of Henry and already caught on to his plan, apparently. Suddenly, his phone rang.

Henry reached for it hoping it was Erica, but the number on the caller ID was not Erica's. He sighed, tapping the "talk" symbol on the screen. "Nikola. Where the hell ar- "

"What are you playing at? You roofied my phone?" Nikola sounded half-annoyed, half-impressed if Henry was honest about it.

"Well where are you? What are you doing? Because if you're planning some sort of idiotic stunt, at least wait til Will and Declan are done trying to piece toget- " Nikola cut him off again.

"Listen, Wolfgang. I'm not planning anything. Okay? Just... follow the signal to my phone. Trust me. When you see why it will be worth your while. " And just like that he hung up, not giving Henry a chance to protest or even answer him. "Hmmm.. " Considering his words, Henry sighed and put his phone in his pocket before he got up, grabbed his dark blue hoodie off the door and headed out to follow the signal as he originally intended.

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Henry tracked Nikola's phone to the entrance to the tunnel below New City. He followed it down the sectioned off old pathway. The mapping he'd done revealed that it ended in a dead end only another block or so from here, nothing useful to the current sewer setup down here. What was Tesla doing in a place like this?

He kept walking, on high alert and half expecting to encounter some sort of hybrid creature or zombie vampires. He resisted the instinct to HAP and continued on his way until he reached the security panel. It began to scan his eye and the door opened, granting him access into the rock tunnel leading to the Hollow Earth Sanctuary.

That was where he saw her, standing there, waiting for him much as she had for Will. "Hello, Henry. "

"Doc..." He could hardly believe his eyes. There she was, standing there infront of him, with that warm smile... She looked beautiful, happy, peaceful... much more than he'd seen her since well before Ashley's death. "Oh my God... Doc, you're... You're you!" He was stunned. Helen smiled warmly and approached him. He couldn't hold back, he stepped toward her and brought his arms around her, the only "mother" he had ever known, and hugged her tight. "Doc... Helen." He embraced her and she, him. Her arms wrapping around him and her hand rubbed over her shoulder blade reassuringly.

Helen blinked back tears and just nodded a little. "Henry... I'm so sorry, I'm sorry I had to do this, to keep this from you all... " She stepped back then to look him in the eyes. "It's all over now, Henry. We're safe. It's time to start again. Can you ever forgive me?"

Henry didn't know what to say. He just nodded, "oh Doc.. you're alive, that's all that matters."

She nodded. "Yes, I am alive. Thanks to you and your FOSSS shield jacket." She smiled then, a hand lifted now to brush over her eyes as they teared a bit. "Well done, Henry."


	4. Chapter 3: Kate

**JanSuch, thanks so much for the review and answering my poll! I think your points are excellent =) **

**jedimasterkenobi, thanks for your review too!**

**Still accepting any replies about Biggie's and Druitt's statuses. **

**Reviews also much appreciated. **

**Here is the last chapter of my fic. Sorry it took so long, I didn't realize how hard it would be to write for Kate. **

**New stories coming next week! Gonna do a November fic marathon in place of my usual NaNoWriMo attempt.. ;)**

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Kate and Garris were working with some of the Hollow Earth abnormals in New Praxis on clearing an area of ground where a public sector would be built. Materials had started to be collected for what would be a market and trade center.

Currently, Garris was in one of the tents sorting out a disagreement between some of the Herusian business owners. They had bickered over placements of their businesses, and specifications of their buildings. Garris was trying to remind them that in order for New Praxis to thrive, or even survive, they would all have to work together.

Kate had learned her lesson back in the Homeland District about trying to interfere with angry Herusians, and instead was busy helping one of the Light-men unload some supplies to the cleared construction area. The region was newly-cleared and ready for part of a commercial district to be built. No power or communications had been set up yet, at least not by the Praxians. This was why Kate was puzzled to hear a mechanical-type whirring nearby.

"Hey guys, get some of this stuff unloaded for the construction teams I'm gonna go check on something, " Kate called up to the two Herusian men who were unloading some building materials to be carried up to the site by the Light-men. They nodded and Kate turned to go off on her way.

She hadn't gone very far when she saw it. In the middle of a region that hadn't even begun to be purposed yet, there was a large clearing, one that had not been orchestrated by the New Praxis architects and designers. And there overhead was a track for a Praxian transit sphere.

When the large metal orb rushed up infront of her, Kate was a little surprised when it stopped right before her. A little hesitant remembering her previous experience with one of these spheres, at first, Kate finally decided she should go and see where this mystery ball led to.

She held on and waited. The sphere was travelling rapidly both vertically and horizontally, something she already expected given her previous ride on one such device during their first venture into Hollow Earth.

Finally, the racing orb came to a stop. The doors opened and when Kate stepped out onto the platform, she could hardly believe her eyes. "Oh my God..." She walked down to the path leading to the two large, modern white buildings. The waters surrounding them held many familiar creatures, and she had no doubt what she was looking at, even if it seemed impossible.

Her footsteps quickening, she headed toward one of the buildings, searching for any familiar faces. She reached the door and lifted a hand to press the buzzer.

"... Hello!" A happy and familiar voice rang through the speaker. "Hank! What's going on? Open the door. " Kate had a million questions, understandably, but she was eager to see everyone. And could Magnus... ?

Well, the most important question was answered seconds later when the door was opened and Helen stood there infront of her. She gave her a warm smile as she opened the door to greet the last member of the team to find this place.

"Kate, welcome home. "

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**Wow I'm sorry that sucked so bad. But.. that's that, everyone's home now.**

**Please review x Also ... Biggie and John? Alive? Dead? **


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